Q. We’re interviewing Ms. Odell Green. I'm Jean Uzzle and we’re gonna talk about your school days and any other information that you want to give us is welcomed. Mrs. Green, where did you grow up in the area of Isle of Wight? .
A. I grew up in a place where we call Magnet, Virginia. .
Q. How many sisters and brothers did you have? .
A. Thirteen, and I am the fourteenth child. .
Q. I know you had plenty of company, didn’t you? .
A. Yes I did. Yes, I did enjoy all my brothers and sisters. .
Q. So where did you go to school? .
A. Trinity. .
Q. You went to Trinity? .
A. Trinity School. .
Q. And that is in the Magnet Area? .
A. In the Magnet area. .
Q. Did any of your sisters and brothers attend the same school? .
A. I had two, a brother and a sister to attend the Trinity School. .
Q. At Trinity can you remember what grades were taught there? .
A. The grades taught were one through seven, seven grades. .
Q. How many classrooms? .
A. Three classrooms. .
Q. How many teachers did you have there? .
A. Well, we had teachers for every room. .
Q. What grades did you go to at Trinity? Did you complete? .
A. I completed the seven grades. .
Q. Can you remember what year that was? .
A. No. I started in 19 and 21. .
Q. Can you remember who some of your teachers were? .
A. Yes, my first teacher was Mrs. Gracie Davis and the principal at the time was Mrs. Elsie Godwin, Elsie Bailey Godwin. .
Q. Mrs. Green, how did you get to school at that time? .
A. Walked, we walked to school. .
Q. So how far was that? How many miles do you think you walked? .
A. About two miles, roughly, two miles. .
Q. Two miles going? .
A. Yes. .
Q. Before and after school, did you have chores or jobs to do? Maybe at home before you got to school and after you got home from school? .
A. Well, living on a farm it was my job to get wood. In the afternoon I’d help to get the wood in for the fire that night. .
Q. When going to school were there any chores you had to do, maybe, when you got to school? .
A. The only thing we had to do at school was, afternoons maybe, sweep the floor, clean the rooms. Sweep floors and the blackboards, wash those blackboards and have them ready for the next day. .
Q. How did you start your day at school? In the mornings, how did your school day begin? .
A. Our school day began with devotionals, songs, scripture and prayer. That’s what we had in our schools. .
Q. What do you think about the schools today not having it? .
A. I think they are really missing something because our principal, at that time, was a very good Christian woman and she was just a joy for her to start the morning with song and scripture and prayer. .
Q. What subjects did you have in school? .
A. We, we had the regular, you know, reading writing and arithmetic. And, at that time, we didn’t have any extra things, you know. .
Q. Were there any special textbooks or readers that you had that stand out in your mind, any of your textbooks?
A. My first book, I remember, was when I started in the Primer; it was “Run Jane Run”. .
Q. Where did you keep your books when you were at school? Did you have somewhere to keep your books? .
A. Yes, we had desks where we could keep our books. .
Q. How long were your school days?
A. From nine until three in the afternoon. .
Q. Can you remember how long your school year was? What time did the school start in the year and what time did it end? .
A. Our school, at that time, started in October and ended in May because that was a farming community and the children had to cut corn stalks or whatever; they helped things like that to help prepare the farm. .
Q. Where did you eat lunch? How long did you have for lunch? .
A. Well, we ate lunch, if it was a good and fair day, we would go out in the sunshine or on the porch. It was a porch on the school and we were allowed to go outdoors, but on rainy days, of course, we would stay inside. .
Q. Do you remember how long lunch was? Was it thirty minutes or an hour? .
A. Well, I don’t exactly remember how long. It was forty-five minutes to an hour, let’s put it that way. .
Q. Did you have a recess? .
A. Oh yes, we had a recess, did exercises, regular exercises, physical exercises. .
Q. Can you picture in your mind or describe your classroom? What was your classroom like? What were the things that were in your classroom? .
A. Well, at that time, in our classrooms we had the blackboards, the teacher’s desk and, of course, some pictures on the wall pertaining, maybe, to some schools; something pertaining to the schools. We would have those and, of course, we had our maps; global maps we had. .
Q. How was the school heated? .
A. The heat was a wooden stove. .
Q. Now, what about the restrooms? .
A. You know where they were. You know where the restrooms were, outdoors, but we did have an enclosure. We didn’t have to go into the woods. We had an outdoor toilet, as they would call it. .
Q. Where was your water supply? Where did you all get water from? .
A. Nearby church, Emmanuel Baptist. That’s where we got our water. We brought it to the school in buckets but we got it from Emmanuel Baptist Church. .
Q. Can you tell me what your teacher’s desk was like? Can you remember? .
A. She always kept a very neat…. Mrs. Godwin was always neat, whatever she had on her desk. .
Q. What did it look like? .
A. It was just a long table; chair where she sat in at her desk. .
Q. Can you describe your desk that you sat in? .
A. Well may not remember what they looked like. They were just a top desk with an inkwell and underneath there were little something where we could put our books. I don’t exactly know how to say it. .
Q. It had an inkwell? .
A. Hmm Hmm, we had an inkwell in our desk. .
Q. Was chalkboards used in the school, which they call blackboards, at that time? .
A. Yea, they were there. We had those too. .
Q. The supplies you had for school, did you have to furnish your own supplies, school supplies, like your paper and your pencils, whatever you needed? .
A. Oh yes, we supplied our own when I started. We supplied our own, everything we needed in school. .
Q. Lighting, can you remember whether it was electricity or was it lamp light or was it natural light through the windows that was used? .
A. It was natural light through the windows. Our desks were fitted so that we, the light always came over the left shoulder so there wouldn’t be a shadow in what we were writing. .
Q. Now, did you have a room or somewhere to hang your coats? .
A. Oh yea. We called it at that time a clothes closet. We called them clothes closets, where we kept our coats and like that, and where we kept our lunch pails. That’s what we called them at the time. .
Q. How was discipline and punishment used in the classroom? .
A. Well, most of the punishments were hard, strict, but not that many beatings unless a child was really out, really out there, that did not want to obey. Then I mean they would really get a good little whipping, you know, but other than that there were no harsh punishments of any kind as I remember. .
Q. Were there any other school experience that kind of stand out in your mind that you remember while you were at Trinity? .
A. Well I, actually that was a very nice school to go to. I remember this, what we call at that time, dodge ball games. We had the annual school fairs, which would be known as something else now maybe. We had fun at Trinity School we just had a lot of fun. .
Q. On the way home in the afternoons; was it a nice crowd of kids or may one or two just walking your way? .
A. It depended on which way we went home in the evening. Maybe we wanted to kinda make it as long as we could. Sometime we were in a hurry and other times we were not in a hurry to get home but it depends; sometimes we would go by the Magnet stores, we call it the general store. If we went that route home, then it would take us a little bit longer and a bigger group, but if we went through a place that we called a “coulson”. But, you know at that time we didn’t get all our… we may have said some words that wasn’t pronounced, you know, correctly, so we just said we went through the “coulson” and then our crowd wouldn’t be that much over when we finished. We may not have had over two or three other families, maybe one or two families. .
Q: That sound like it was fun? .
A. It was and on rainy days, of course, we didn’t go through the “coulson” as we called it because there was too much water in there. So we went by the store and, of course, that gave us better roads to walk on. All the roads were then just bad roads when it rained. Yea, we would jump ditches, dirt roads. .
Q. Can you see the differences and changes in the county from the time you went to school up until now? .
A. Oh my goodness, the changes from walking-- to buses and better schools. That’s what I like about Isle of Wight County Schools, they always tried to make it better for their children. I walked, after I graduated from Trinity, then I walked to Smithfield to attend high school. I see a big improvement in the county. Even from the time at Trinity, I saw it go from having a Supervisor, Mrs. Georgie Tyler and things like that. Even while I was there, she became the Supervisor of the County, as we call them the “Negro” Schools. The black school, she became the first black supervisor in Isle of Wight County. At that time, Mr. L.T. Hall was the Superintendent of Schools. .
Q. Is there any other thing that you would like to tell me about? School experiences was always interesting. .
A. Yes, so many things I have forgotten, maybe, you know that just slip me right now. But, I remember before I even graduated from Trinity School, I remember so many things that the teachers taught that inspired me to get a better education. I went to high school but, unfortunately, didn’t get to college. But it put something in me that if I ever had children they would go on to get the best that I could afford for them and so that’s what inspired me at Trinity School to always; and in fact my mother was an inspiration for education. She always taught us to read something. She was always reading something as she taught us that we should read and gain knowledge from what we read. So that inspired me to put it in me so I put it in my children. The two children, I sent them to school. In fact, I’m proud of both of my children that sought a higher education. .
Q: That’s beautiful. .
A. I’m very proud of them. I am so proud of Mrs. Godwin and the other teachers at Trinity that inspired their students to do something to further their education. Always try to do something better, not just stay but to do something better. She always inspired us that way. .
Q: That was good she showed concern. .
A. For her students. .
Q: And that was wonderful. .
A. That was. She calls my children her grandchildren. She inspired all the classes that she taught and most of them today are doing very well. .
Q: She left a legacy. .
A. Yes, she did. She was a beautiful principal, beautiful. .
Q: Mrs. Green, I have enjoyed the interview with you, it’s so inspiring. We want to thank you so much; so your grandchildren, your great grandchildren can come to the museum and listen to what you said. .
A. I’m even proud of my; I have two great grandchildren and of course I’m very proud of them, too. .
Q: Thank you so very much.
A. You’re very welcome.